Georgia did what championship teams do: it found a way to win when it didn’t have its best stuff, beating Auburn on the road, 27–20. In the Dawgs’ case, it was more about the fact that they’re just not a fully formed unit as they continue trying to find a consistent identity this year. We don’t really know what the best stuff this team has to offer really looks like, but for now, their good is still certainly good enough.
It’s hard to divorce what we’ve seen from the last two seasons from the Dawgs of 2023. Repeating is hard, three-peating is seemingly impossible—no major college team’s done it since the 1930s, and only the Packers have done it in the NFL with one NFL Championship and then the first two Super Bowls. This Georgia team has looked mortal so far. This is the natural state of regression from one of the best defenses we’ve seen in the last two decades in college football to merely just pretty damn good. They lost talent on offense as well and had to replace it with new faces. They’re certainly nowhere near a finished product. But the key player they didn’t lose? Brock Bowers.
There are few better players in college football than the reigning Mackey Award winner. In a tough road spot against Auburn with a rabid crowd, the Dawgs just hit the Bowers button over and over again when they needed it the most, proving that, of all things, a nominal tight end can take over a game.
